docker-compose

Manage Docker-Compose via Node.js

docker-compose is a small library that allows you to run docker-compose (which is still required) via Node.js. This is useful to bootstrap test environments.

As of version 1.0, this library supports docker compose (v2, the docker "compose" plugin) by default. The docker-compose (v1) has been removed from recent releases of Docker Desktop and is no longer supported. However, you can still force the use of docker-compose by using the standanlone mode.

Installation

yarn add --dev docker-compose

Documentation

The documentation can be found here.

Example

Import for docker-compose

import * as compose from 'docker-compose'

You can also import only the required commands:

import { run, upAll } from 'docker-compose'

Usage

To start service containers based on the docker-compose.yml file in your current directory, just call compose.upAll like this:

compose.upAll({ cwd: path.join(__dirname), log: true }).then(
  () => {
    console.log('done')
  },
  (err) => {
    console.log('something went wrong:', err.message)
  }
)

Start specific services using compose.upMany:

const services = ['serviceA', 'serviceB']
compose.upMany(services, { cwd: path.join(__dirname), log: true })

Or start a single service with compose.upOne:

const service = 'serviceA'
compose.upOne(service, { cwd: path.join(__dirname), log: true })

To execute command inside a running container

compose.exec('node', 'npm install', { cwd: path.join(__dirname) })

To list the containers for a compose project

const result = await compose.ps({ cwd: path.join(__dirname) })
result.data.services.forEach((service) => {
  console.log(service.name, service.command, service.state, service.ports)
  // state is e.g. 'Up 2 hours'
})

The --format json command option can be used to get a better state support:

const result = await compose.ps({ cwd: path.join(__dirname), commandOptions: [["--format", "json"]] })
result.data.services.forEach((service) => {
  console.log(service.name, service.command, service.state, service.ports)
  // state is one of the defined states: paused | restarting | removing | running | dead | created | exited
})

Standalone mode

While the docker-compose executable is no longer part of a default docker installation, it is still possible to download its binary standalone. This is useful for example when building docker images, avoiding the need to install the whole docker stack.

To use a standalone binary, you can set the executable.standalone option to true. You can also set the executablePath option to the path of the docker-compose binary.

compose.upAll({
   executable: {
      standalone: true,
      executablePath: '/path/to/docker-compose' // optional
   }
})

Known issues

• During testing we noticed that docker compose seems to send its exit code also commands don't seem to have finished. This doesn't occur for all commands, but for example with stop or down. We had the option to wait for stopped / removed containers using third party libraries but this would make bootstrapping docker-compose much more complicated for the users. So we decided to use a setTimeout(500) workaround. We're aware this is not perfect, but it seems to be the most appropriate solution for now. Details can be found in the v2 PR discussion (we're happy to get help here).

Running the tests

While docker-compose runs on Node.js 6+, running the tests requires you to use Node.js 8+ as they make use of async/await.

yarn test

Want to help?

This project is just getting off the ground and could use some help with cleaning things up and refactoring.

If you want to contribute - we'd love it! Just open an issue to work against so you get full credit for your fork. You can open the issue first so we can discuss and you can work your fork as we go along.

If you see a bug, please be so kind as to show how it's failing, and we'll do our best to get it fixed quickly.

Before sending a PR, please create an issue to introduce your idea and have a reference for your PR.

We're using conventional commits, so please use it for your commits as well.

Also please add tests and make sure to run yarn lint.

Discussions

If you want to discuss an docker-compose issue or PR in more detail, feel free to start a discussion.

License

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2017 - 2021 PDMLab

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Changelog

1.2.0 (2025-03-14)

Features

• using standalone binary (297183d)

1.1.1 (2025-02-11)